The Studios: Pickle Party at Esplanade - Theatres on the Bay

“I enjoyed the ways it connects to the systems and limitations we all have to contend with as people who live in Singapore. I liked watching the ‘behind the scenes’ aspect, the VJing was very fun and the live camera work too. The kitsch-ness worked well with a cyberpunk visual aesthetic!”
— Shaw En, Audience (Closed-door presentation, 2023)

“It challenged the typical usage and code of conduct of a typical theatrical space… and created a wonderful sense of community or intimacy. The text was also really powerful, and the fear of being overly dependent on others really hit home. I hadn’t previously thought about this in relation to food sustainability and pickling before.”
— Elle, Audience (Closed-door presentation, 2023)

“My grandfather was a durian farmer, back when they lived in a kampung. But in those 10 years, most Singaporeans were forced to relocate to public housing. Even after he moved, my grandfather was still trying to grow everything he could from a sixth floor concrete corridor. Everything he knew about growing durians was made obsolete so that knowledge was never passed down.”

A show disguised as a pickling workshop, Pickle Party is a multidisciplinary, multi-species performance. Set against the backdrop of Singapore’s rapid development from farmland to modern city, it dives into how humans, microbes and food security are connected—where does our food come from? What will we be eating next?

Led by directors Ang Xiao Ting (Extinction Feast, ECOncert) and Kuo Jian Hong (All The World’s A Sea, Four Horse Road), Pickle Party features award-winning livestream technology (XIMI), live VJ-ing, live performance and community pickling. The production will be staged within a Singapore version of Tanja Beer’s critically-acclaimed The Living Stage, which combines stage design, permaculture and community engagement to create a recyclable, biodegradable and edible performance space.

Experience Pickle Party your way! For each performance, participants can choose to be Picklers (get hands-on with pickling on stage, limited slots) or be part of the General Audience (watch the performance from a different perspective). Kindly select your preferred audience experience at the point of ticket purchase.

Discover the power of edible hope.